Two weeks have passed since Baby Jake arrived in the Hicken household, and I have already lost track of the days.

The constant feed-­sleep-­feed cycle means one day feels much the same as another, but things are already starting to get easier as we try and establish a semblance of routine.

We are very fortunate that we are getting just about enough sleep ourselves to stay sane, especially with Little Man to look after as well now he has finished nursery before starting school in September.

Reaching the two-week mark has made me think about the usual paternity leave that fathers take from work and how frankly inadequate it is.

I have landed on my feet in the very lucky situation of having a teacher for a husband and a baby who arrived in the last week of term before the summer holidays, giving me a whole seven weeks of support at home.

Equally importantly, Jake and Daddy have nearly two months of vital bonding time which is an absolute luxury most working families don’t get.

If Jake had been born in the middle of the school year, my husband would have been back at work this week, and I would have been left to care for the demands of a new baby while I’m still physically recovering from the birth myself.

After an unsettled night on Sunday, I was able to catch up on some sleep on Monday morning while Daddy got up with the boys – an impossibility if he had been getting up for work instead.

Both of us would be shattered and everything would feel infinitely harder – and that feeling can quickly snowball, leading to much bigger problems for those families having to cope under such circumstances.

Shared Parental Leave is now an option when both parents are working but in reality I imagine very few families will take this up.

Having briefly looked at some details of SPL online, it looks unnecessarily complicated, unfeasible for the job continuity of many professionals, and would undoubtedly leave parents financially worse off as the statutory pay is so poor.

From a parent’s perspective, enabling working fathers to spend at least the first month of their child’s life at home with Mum, on as close to full pay as possible, would be of much greater benefit to the wellbeing of the whole family, if employers were able to accommodate.